How I will lower the cost of power -Energy CS nominee Davis Chirchir

Energy and Petroleum Cabinet Secretary (CS) nominee Davis Chirchir has outlined his strategies for dealing with the high cost of power in the country.

Speaking before the Parliamentary Committee on Appointments on Tuesday afternoon, the one-time CS on the energy docket exuded confidence in his vast knowledge and understanding of his role saying he would ensure production, transmission and cost of power to the customers is affordable.

He gave a detailed view of different types of energy among them Hydroelectric, Geothermal, Wind, Solar and Diesel Fuels, and how his leadership, if appointed to the position, would ensure the sections have the maximum output at the lowest costs to the government, therefore, lowering the cost to consumers.

“Having served as the CS of Energy and Petroleum, I can say with some level of authority, I understand the sector and challenges which afflict the sector,” Chirchir stated.

“When you load the cost of transmission which is more on the Kenya Power side, you are talking about running the economy to 30c/s which is not sustainable.”

He added: “We must do proper planning, get the correct power mix and ensure we feed our power to the grid at the right cost.”

According to Chirchir, Kenya should put more effort into developing Geothermal energy which is cheaper and minimise reliance on Diesel fuels which are costlier and environmentally unfriendly.

“Even with the 3000 Mega Watts today and Kenya Power will tell you that the pick is about 2100 MW, then you must support with the diesel generator which is used to support power shortage but more particularly picking (at night when a lot of people are consuming power),” he explained.

“We must leave the diesel generator to support picking and for emergency use only. To have them as a permanent feature is something that cannot be sustained... We should generate more from Geothermal up to 10000 MW, improve the power matrix and reliability over  transmission network so that we don’t have this intermittency of power dropping and messing up with equipment in the industry."

Chirchir cites the monopoly of Kenya Power in the transmission of power as another cause of high-cost electricity.

He says that entities such as KPLC, Ketraco and Kengen of the power entities should adhere to their specific roles to ensure that the funding by the government to a specific body is well utilised, ultimately saving the consumer from incurring other costs.

 “I will look at the cost structures for our parastatals. We generate power at between  $4 to $5 dollars on the renewable energy and when we give Kenya Power to distribute, they distribute at another 4 to 5 cents, it is not acceptable,” he noted.

“We must look at the distribution cost to be able to bring down the cost of power, to strengthen the network in a very structured way. We must decouple; the generator is Kengen, the transmission is Ketraco and the off-taker is Kenya Power.”

He added: “Today if you look at the decoupling of services between Kenya Power and the Rural Electrification and Renewable Energy Corporation (REREC), you can’t draw a clear line on who does what. We don’t fund REREC and then the work is done by KPLC.”

Likewise, Chirchir opines that all the bodies must work together to ensure the power is delivered to the grid at fair and competitive prices in a bid to attract global investors.

“We need to bring everybody to the table…teamwork. Ken Gen, GDC, the mission of all the power producers talk about competitive price power. Are we competitive when we are a monopoly?” He posed.

“We should be competitive against the world prices of delivering power to the grid to be able to attract some of these global firms. I am up to the task and am aware of the challenges.”